Discrimination in the workplace is unlawful, and employers
abusing protected characteristics such as age, race, and sex can
find themselves in legal battles. But how seriously are such laws
taken? We decided to find out.

Despite education and advanced qualifications, graduates
are still being discriminated against in job interviews. We found
this out when we surveyed UK graduates and asked: 'what's the
worst question you have ever been asked at
interview?'

What's the law?

Best practice tells us that employers should adopt a
standardised process to the submission of CVs. There has been
debate about anonymised CVs which would mean that when submitting a
CV, a candidate would not be required to disclose his or
her name. This may go some way towards stopping
unconscious bias against ethnic sounding names. This is currently
being debated and would mark further legislation that employers
must abide by.

Nigel Farage has pledged that, if in power, he would abolish
much of the anti-discrimination legislation. Farage's claim is that
we're in a much better position now than we were 40 years
ago. Whilst some find the idea of this unsatisfactory,
others agree that protection has gone too far and taken away
rights from employers, tying them in knots when it comes to hiring
and firing.

Interview discrimination

Whether it's just ill-advised, or something that'salways been the 'norm',we were shocked to
hear some of the questions that UK students have been
asked in 2015.

HR professional Renae Jackson says:

"Discrimination can occur during the candidate screening
stages, the interview process and really anywhere throughout the
remainder of the employee life cycle. So the laws are there for the
right reasons. Even the most well-intentioned employer can
unwittingly leave themselves open to litigation though. HR
professionals must taking care to consider things like spell check
facilities for candidates on the recruitment website and make sure
that nothing will either directly or indirectly disadvantage
applicants with a disability."

"Without even realising it, employers can ask seemingly
innocent questions and break the law in the process; however, with
employment law information so readily available online, there
really is no excuse for insensitive questions or illegal
practices."

The following are some of the questions that have
been asked in interviews: